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Buoyed by the growth of domestic transportation management, the overall US market for third-party logistics was on pace to grow 5.1 percent in 2017, according to consulting firm and analyst Armstrong & Associates. Leading the growth are domestic managed-transportation companies such as Penske, Ryder, and Transplace, and freight brokerage companies such as C.H. Robinson and Coyote Logistics that were on pace for more than 9 percent growth in net revenue, up from 7 percent in 2016. Among the underlying factors for this growth was tightening trucking capacity, especially in the second half of the year as the US recovered from hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, and as economic growth accelerated. Armstrong expects capacity to stay fairly tight, leading to 9 to 10 percent growth in domestic transportation management in 2018. The international transportation segment, however, faced significant headwinds in 2017, with net revenue declining 1.9 percent, according to Armstrong. Still, that marked an improvement over 2015-2016, as severe pricing pressure on freight forwarders eased a bit, especially on the container shipping side. Also altering the landscape is rapid expansion of e-commerce, as some shippers shift cargo to air, creating new demands — and, in some cases, strains — on airfreight networks. This webcast will explore the underlying factors — economic growth, sector-specific performance, and geopolitical risks — driving the direction of the North American and global logistics industry, and the technology and other initiatives 3PLs are implementing to address them.

After several years of unrelieved gloom and premature reports of a market recovery, breakbulk and project cargo shippers and carriers say better times may really be around the corner, possibly this year. “We see a positive upturn in 2018 and 2019, Susan Oatway, lead analyst for multipurpose shipping at Drewry Shipping Consultants, said in late 2017. “I am cautiously optimistic.” Drewry expects breakbulk rates will start to rise this year as the global economy improves, more vessels are scrapped, fewer new ships are launched, and competing container and bulk carriers find more attractive opportunities in their core markets. Any recovery would contrast with the depressed market the industry has endured since slumping energy and commodity prices caused demand to plunge just as carriers took on hundreds of multipurpose vessels ordered on the eve of the Great Recession.

This webcast will analyze the trends and dynamics driving the breakbulk and heavy-lift shipping industry in the year ahead.

Container lines in 2017 scored the first profitable year since 2010, and they appear serious about carrying that momentum this year in the competitive trans-Pacific trade. Industry executives and analysts agree that if carriers manage vessel capacity in the Asia-US trade to meet the projected growth in cargo volume in the eastbound Pacific, they’re likely to remain profitable while attaining sustainable freight rates. With an expanding US economy expected to generate another year of strong imports, and carrier consolidation providing leverage on the capacity side, industry experts are putting beneficial cargo owners on notice that carriers may hold the upper hand in upcoming service contract talks. BCO contracting strategies built upon the expectation of overcapacity and multiple carrier options “simply won’t work next time around,” Philip Damas, operational head of Drewry Supply Chain Advisors, said in the fall. The carrier “super-cycle of consolidation” of the past two years, punctuated by Hanjin Shipping’s August 2016 bankruptcy should give carriers leverage in service contract negotiations for the May 1-to-April 30 season, he said.

This webcast will analyze container shipping dynamics as 2018 begins and lay the foundation for what lies ahead.

Moderator

Mark Szakonyi, Executive Editor, JOC.com and The Journal of Commerce

Speaker(s)

Chas Deller, Consultant, Drewry Supply Chain Consultants

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Interested in sponsoring this webcast? For more information, please contact Tony Stein at Tony.Stein@ihsmarkit.com